Sleep Appliances

Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Fredericksburg VA

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a serious chronic breathing disorder caused by a narrowing or total closure of the airway. When you have OSA, the airway becomes partially or completely blocked and your breathing can be interrupted for periods of time lasting from 10 seconds to over a minute in severe cases. Even worse, a patient may stop breathing hundreds of times each night!

Snoring and nighttime gasps for air are indications that Sleep Apnea may be taking place. Snoring is no longer something to joke about. Besides keeping others awake, your snoring may be causing serious medical problems if it is caused by Sleep Apnea. While you are sleeping, and without your knowledge, the body spends the entire night struggling for air and you never really get the important restful deep sleep you need. As a result, people with Sleep Apnea wake up still tired, often with a headache, are drowsy all day, experience memory loss, and have higher accident rates. The result is severe stress being placed on your body – especially on your cardiovascular system and metabolism. As a result, Sleep Apnea is associated with diabetes, weight gain (obesity), high blood pressure (hypertension), congestive heart failure, cardiovascular disease, erectile dysfunction, stroke, and even death.

The diagnostic process is easy and covered by insurance. The first step is to take a simple free screening questionnaire to determine if Obstructive Sleep Apnea is causing your sleepiness (there are more than 85 breathing disorders). If the screening indicates that you may have a problem, you will be referred to a physician in a sleep medicine practice for an overnight sleep study. Millions of people have Sleep Apnea and are now on effective therapy. You can join them by contacting us today and taking the first step. Click here to read about the SomnoDent Oral Sleep Appliance by SomnoMed.

*Click on the links below to read the two recent articles appearing in The Free Lance-Star featuring Dr. Willhide discussing Oral Appliance Therapy in the treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea*